The body in the gallery A Faith Fairchild mystery

Katherine Hall Page

Book - 2008

Secretly assisting her museum president friend in a case involving a stolen piece of fine art, Faith Fairchild stumbles upon a murder scene near a controversial exhibit and becomes increasingly exasperated by the police's inability to recognize important clues.

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MYSTERY/Page, Katherine Hall
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Subjects
Published
New York : William Morrow/HarperCollins c2008.
Language
English
Main Author
Katherine Hall Page (-)
Edition
1st ed
Physical Description
262 p. ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780060763701
9780060763671
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Fans of culinary and especially catering cozies like those of Diane Mott Davidson should eat up the latest in the Faith Fairchild series. Like Davidson, Agatha Award-winning Page injects cooking lore and advice (and recipes at the back) into her conventional body-found-by-caterer plot. This latest Fairchild is further enlivened by intriguing information on art theft and art forgeries. A friend of Faith's is convinced that someone has forged a copy of a painting she has loaned to an exhibit. Then Faith stumbles across the body of a young woman (floating in a giant fish tank installation) at the gallery. Page has to work a bit to get Faith on scene for the investigation, since the local cops want nothing to do with her, but a temporary posting to the gallery café gives the intrepid sleuth all the opportunity she needs. A bit formulaic but worth it for the atmosphere, cooking, and art expertise.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2008 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Is it art or murder? In Page's savory 17th Faith Fairchild mystery (after 2006's The Body in the Ivy), the caterer/chef uncovers sinister doings at the Ganley Museum of Art in Aleford, Mass. When Faith's friend Patsy Avery, the president of the museum's board of trustees, asks her to investigate a potential forgery, Faith is reluctant to jump back into the detecting world. She finally agrees to open a cafe in the museum at Patsy's urging, but soon discovers a bald female corpse floating in a tank intended for an art installation. Faith's subsequent investigation reveals that the woman, who called herself "Tess Auchincloss," had a stolen Degas sketch stashed in her apartment. Joining forces with Det. Lt. John Dunne, Faith scrambles to solve the case even as the list of suspect grows and another murder occurs. Along with fun foodie details, Page provides an entertaining subplot involving Faith's rebellious teenage son, Ben. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

When a corpse ends up as part of an art installation, caterer Fairchild is soon enmeshed in discovering the "artist" in Page's 17th culinary mystery. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Forgeries and murder now on exhibit in a New England museum. Faith Fairchild, wife to minister Tom, mom to Ben and Amy, owner of Have Faith catering and amateur sleuth in picturesque, old-moneyed Aleford, a suburb of Boston, agrees to take over the Ganley Art Museum caf. Between courses, she'll help her chum Patsy, a board trustee, discover who replaced the Romare Bearden painting with a copy. First, however, Faith, cleaning up after the catered opening of a controversial exhibition--a tiny goldfish swimming in a tank of water--finds the nude body of a bald girl floating in the tank. Who is she? No one admits to knowing her, although one member of the board wanted to marry her and several museum instructors used her as a model. Two out-of-the-blue calls to the cops identify her low-class midwestern origins--a far cry from the wealthy, artistic identity she fashioned for herself. Meanwhile, young Ben is causing problems at home and at school; Tom is fretting that Faith has become an absentee mom; and Faith, who saw no reason to tell the police about the forgeries, now realizes they may be connected to the murders. It'll be many restorative coffee and cookie breaks later before Aleford residents can feel secure in their upper-class bubble once again. Like all the Fairchild mysteries (The Body in the Ivy, 2006, etc.), this one is stronger on domesticity and culinary skills than on criminal behavior. The undemanding fare includes five recipes. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The Body in the Gallery A Faith Fairchild Mystery Chapter One "Wait, let me get this straight. Isn't what you're suggesting called 'breaking and entering'?" Faith Fairchild's fingers had been hovering over the plate of sticky buns her friend Patsy Avery had put out to go with the coffee they were drinking as they sat in Patsy's large kitchen on Maple Street--two blocks from Faith's house, the First Parish parsonage. Now she pulled her hand away as if the buns themselves might be larcenous. " Entering , no breaking involved. All very legit. As president of the board of trustees I have the museum's alarm code. Trustee. Trust. We're not removing anything from the property, merely taking a look at something that's already there." "Then why do we have to do it at night when the Ganley is closed? And why does it have to be 'we,' by the way?" "Have a bun. You know you want one. I haven't been explaining this very well. To reiterate." "You're sounding very lawyerly." Faith took a bun and started picking the pecans from the top. Patsy's mother sent the toothsome pastries up from Louisiana periodically, and even though Faith was a caterer, she had never been able to duplicate them. The recipe was a family secret--like the ones for jambalaya and cornbread. "I am a lawyer." "Just a reminder." "Okay. When we were first married, Will and I bought a Romare Bearden. You saw it in the show that's up at the museum now." Faith remembered it well. It was a Bearden collage from the 1960s, often considered the period when he was doing his best work. This piece was deceptively simple--a bass player in blue set against a background of more shades of blue. The rich brown of the musician's hands and face were in sharp contrast to the soft yellows and reds of the instrument itself, which merged to become part of his body. Looking at it, you could hear the notes--mellow, vibrant, pure jazz. Feel the intensity of the player, floating through the space the artist had created--Bearden, the figure, the viewer, all one with the music. She nodded. "It's wonderful." "When I was asked to join the board, Will and I decided to offer it to the museum as a permanent loan. We didn't plan to take it back, but we wanted to see what kind of commitment the museum would make, and continue to make, toward broadening its horizons before we gave it outright. Loan is the operative word here, my nervous friend. It's still my Bearden." Faith nodded again. She was with her friend so far, recalling that African-American artists were severely underrepresented at the Ganley before the Averys' gift started the ball rolling. The Ganley, to its credit, was making up for lost time. A new acquisition, an Elizabeth Catlett mother and child bronze, that was also in the show was stunning. Faith had almost wept it was so beautiful. Catlett often portrayed mothers and children, which reminded Faith why she thought Patsy had asked her to drop by. When Patsy had called Faith to come over for coffee, that she had something important to tell her, Faith happily jumped to the conclusion that the Averys were expecting their first child. They had been trying for a long time. A good-sized house and yard for the family they were planning to start was the reason they had moved from Boston's South End to Aleford, a western suburb. Patsy and Will had both grown up in large New Orleans families, and Faith had sympathized with Patsy at the announcement of each sister's, sister-in-law's, and cousin's new arrivals, while the Averys' cradle remained empty. "The way they're poppin' them out, must be something in that Louisiana air. We need to move home," Patsy had said at one point. But Will had made partner in a prestigious firm, and Patsy loved her exhausting job as a juvenile public defender. "These babies have no problem having babies, and that's the problem," she'd mentioned to Faith often. The Averys had seen specialists and engaged in all kinds of treatments without success so far. Yet, it wasn't news of a blessed event, but of an unexpected one. Faith had no sooner sat down than Patsy had excitedly started talking about getting into the Ganley tomorrow night to look at the Bearden collage--one she strongly suspected was not the one the Averys had loaned the museum. Now she had calmed down and was patiently explaining it all to Faith, who had quickly gotten over her initial surprise and in one part of her mind was even starting to agree with Patsy's rationalizations. The woman was the president of the board of trustees, after all. "It was all right at the opening, although it's hard to see what's on the walls with so many ¬people milling around. That's why I went in today to take a last look by myself. I wanted to say good-bye for a while before it goes into storage. It could be a few years before it's in another exhibition. There I was, almost alone--there are never many ¬people first thing in the morning--and right away I knew it wasn't our Bearden." "How could you tell?" Faith asked. "It was a vibe. I'm not one of those ¬people who can spot a fake--I don't have 'the Eye'--but I've lived with this piece of art. I know it. The colors were right, the composition, everything, but something was off. Bearden's signatures were very distinctive. This one was vertical in black script so fine it looked like it was written with an etching tool--four lines, Rom, are, Bear, and den . As much of a work of art as the rest." Faith had an art dealer friend from the years before her marriage when she had been living in her native Manhattan. Andy always said the way an artist signed a piece of art could make or break it. The Body in the Gallery A Faith Fairchild Mystery . Copyright © by Katherine Page. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from The Body in the Gallery: A Faith Fairchild Mystery by Katherine Hall Page All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.